Hot Wheels: Big name, tiny cars, short movie

A glow-in-the-dark Camaro is one of eight vehicles featured in the new Hot Wheels movie, "World's Best Driver." Mattel's 22-minute short film posted to YouTube Thursday in 32 languages. MATTEL

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A Corvette is one of eight vehicles featured in the new Hot Wheels movie, "World's Best Driver." Mattel's 22-minute short film posted to YouTube Thursday in 32 languages. MATTEL

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A life-size version of the Hot Wheels Green Ripper is one of eight vehicles featured in the new action movie, "World's Best Driver." Mattel's 22-minute short film posted to YouTube Thursday in 32 languages. MATTEL

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A life-size version of the Hot Wheels Green Ripper is one of eight vehicles featured in the new action movie, "World's Best Driver." Mattel's 22-minute short film posted to YouTube Thursday in 32 languages. MATTEL

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An off-road trials bike is one of eight vehicles featured in the new Hot Wheels movie, "World's Best Driver." Mattel's 22-minute short film posted to YouTube Thursday in 32 languages. MATTEL

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Racing legend Mario Andretti cameos in a new, 22-minute short film from Mattel. Hot Wheels' "World's Best Driver" featured eight drivers from the action sports world, including Tanner Foust and Ronnie Renner. MATTEL

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A McLaren supercar is one of eight vehicles featured in the new Hot Wheels movie, "World's Best Driver." Mattel's 22-minute short film posted to YouTube Thursday in 32 languages. MATTEL

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A red-nosed Rat Rod is one of eight vehicles that charged over sand and snow in the new Hot Wheels action movie, "World's Best Driver." Mattel's 22-minute short film posted to YouTube Thursday in 32 languages. MATTEL

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A McLaren supercar is one of eight vehicles that raced to determine the "World's Best Driver" in a new Hot Wheels film. Mattel's 22-minute short film posted to YouTube Thursday in 32 languages. MATTEL

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A Hot Wheels rally car is one of eight vehicles that charged over sand and snow in the new action movie, "World's Best Driver." Mattel's 22-minute short film posted to YouTube Thursday in 32 languages. MATTEL

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A Hot Wheels dirt bike is one of eight vehicles that charged over sand and snow in the new Hot Wheels action movie, "World's Best Driver." Mattel's 22-minute short film posted to YouTube Thursday in 32 languages. MATTEL

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Eight life-sized Hot Wheels charged over sand and snow in the new action movie, "World's Best Driver." Mattel's 22-minute short film posted to YouTube Thursday in 32 languages. MATTEL

If there's anything that underscores Hot Wheels' growing credibility in the racing community, it's a cameo by living legend Mario Andretti in "World's Best Driver" – a new, 22-minute short film produced by the toy maker, Mattel.

In the film, which posted to YouTube Thursday, Andretti pulls the trigger on the gun that starts a race between eight life-size Hot Wheels as they race across sand, drift through snow, climb boulders and speed through drainage tunnels, transposing X-Games stunts to a real-world landscape.

"We realized fairly recently that Hot Wheels has been this massive brand for three generations of guys: Kids, fathers and grandfathers," said Felix Holst, vice president of Hot Wheels design at Mattel, in El Segundo. "But when our fans left the brand at the age of seven or eight years old, we didn't do anything for them until they became a father or a collector."

In 2011, Hot Wheels changed course in a big way when a full-size, 600-horsepower Hot Wheels truck jumped 332 feet in a stunt performed at the Indy 500. A year later, it followed that success with an X-Games performance that saw two more overgrown Hot Wheels complete side by side 360s on a six-story-tall double loop, transforming Hot Wheels from a brand that makes 1:64 scale cars to a lifestyle company that now makes real-world, high-performance replicas raced by some of the biggest names in action sports, including drifting champ Tanner Foust, multiple X-Games gold medalist Ronnie Renner and stunt driver Greg Tracy.

The new film was directed by Baja 1000 champion Mouse McCoy with stunt coordination by Tracy, a six-time Pikes Peak champion.

"It's vehicle entertainment on a massive level," Holst said of Hot Wheels' reimagination as a lifestyle brand appealing to dads and their lads.

"Everything we design for children is completely insane. We just super size it."

The 22-minute film was created as a response to "demand for more content," Holst added. "We can touch more people with this film."

And it intends to. On YouTube, the film is dubbed in 32 languages.

Already, Mattel manufactures 6 million Hot Wheels toys every week and designs 50 new cars per year, half of which are replicas of real manufacturers' cars, the other half Hot Wheels originals.

Some of the cars in the new film started as Hot Wheels models. Others, including the Team Hot Wheels Corkscrew Buggy that was barrel rolled for a stunt in real life, were built as fully functioning cars, then reproduced as toys. A glow-in-the dark Chevrolet Camaro, a Green Ripper embellished with overgrown fenders and a red-nosed black hot rod called the Rip Rod are among the vehicles Hot Wheels custom built and featured in the film with an easy-to-follow, mostly scriptless plot to determine the world's best driver.

Mattel has produced dozens of videos about various members of competing Hot Wheels teams testing vehicles at a Hot Wheels Test Facility in the desert.

"It was always one guy tackling an impossible challenge, so this year we thought we'd take those four teams and pitch them against each other in all different disciplines of driving and all different types of vehicles," Holst said.

In the end, all roads lead to an orange ramp, a perfect landing and, of course, the "World's Best Driver." Who it is, you'll need to watch to find out.

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